YOUR OPINION

Monday

Published: Monday, March 6, 2006 at 6:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Monday, March 6, 2006 at 12:00 a.m.

What if

My 10-year-old daughter and 9-year-old niece ride a school bus from a stop off of Southwest 60th Avenue, about six miles from my home. Recently, the school bus, which usually arrives at the stop around 2:30 p.m., arrived close to 2:15 p.m.
My sister works just off of State Road 200, a few blocks from 60th Avenue. She got off at 2:15 and arrived at the bus stop by 2:25. When she arrived, our two girls were quite hysterical, left alone at the bus stop. My child is in the fifth grade, and this is the first and only time this has ever happened. One child was standing in the middle of the vacant lot crying and the other was hiding near the cement wall of the development hiding and crying.
They told my sister another child on the bus offered her cell phone and asked if the children could get off at the next bus stop where her mother was waiting. The bus driver said absolutely not and told them they had to get off the bus because he had a schedule to keep.
He knows these two small girls always have a car waiting for them. When I called the School Board they said the policy is to make all children, except for Pre-K, get off the bus, even if no one is there. And a child had to get off at the stop where they got on, no matter what.
In this day of abductions and bold pedophiles, this is outrageous. An older man actually stopped and asked the girls if they were OK and if they needed a ride home. Fortunately they knew enough to say no. I hope it was just someone being kind and concerned, more than I can say for the School Board. But who knows?
The School Board said if we knew we were going to be late, we could call and they would radio the driver. Well, the driver was early that day and still refused to wait a few minutes.
I hope I never hear about a child knowingly being dropped off at a stop without their parent waiting and he or she is never seen again.Linda Mahone
Ocala
Oil-less future
Fossil fuel, petroleum, the destructor of our planet Earth. Although we have been supplied with all the provisions we need to sustain life, petroleum has been our nemesis.
It has caused wars between nations, the warming of our planet, and the poisoning of our atmosphere. Many problems ignored by our present elected officials are serious, and have become a threat to our life and country. Our bureaucratic government has become so constipated with greed and corruption, it is nearly at a halt.
In order to correct these problems, our private sector should take over many of them and help get our country back on track. Automobile manufacturers throughout the world should syndicate and develop an economical method of producing hydrogen fuel for their vehicles, the mechanics of which, engines and the production of hydrogen fuel, was developed years ago.
The petroleum industry uses the guise of, "The production of hydrogen fuel is prohibitive." Not so! The petroleum industry is a multi-megadollar industry. Why do you think we are at war?
Private industry made this country. Why let our government give it away, such as the Panama Canal, our seaports, manufacturing and the U.S. itself.
We are slowly using up our world credit card and have no more collateral. We've given our country away!Dale Danielsen
Ocala
Failed sobriety test
I have to laugh at the hysterical letter writers trying to defend Vice President Cheney by blaming President Clinton or Sen. Hillary Clinton for past deeds, real or imagined.
Dick Cheney admitted in his Fox News interview that he had had only one beer before going hunting. Ask any Marion County police officer who has stopped someone for DUI how many beers the driver said he had. I guarantee the response will be, "I only had one beer, officer."
I believe Dick Cheney was under the influence of alcohol when he shot his hunting partner in the face. This would account for the reason Cheney did not want to talk to the police until after the alcohol had cleared from his system. I believe the press and other news media should question him about this.
Also, Republican letter writers should remember the disgraced Republican Richard Nixon, who got so drunk he wandered the White House talking to a portrait of Abe Lincoln while he planned the Watergate break-in. Or his vice president, Spiro Agnew, who was convicted for taking financial kickbacks.
Yeah, the list goes on right up to the present day. Here's hoping George Bush and Dick Cheney both will try to stay sober for the next three years.James T. Amis
Ocala
Longer and longer
Regarding the article "Hospitals diverting patients" (Feb. 24), nothing has changed in the six years since I first visited Munroe Regional Medical Center, except waits are growing longer.
When I crushed my right index finger in a 50-ton welder at SEMCO, an Ocala company that's since gone out of business, I was taken to Munroe by another employee. Wait to be seen at window: about 10 minutes. There was a line. Wait to have blood pressure taken and be sent back to waiting room to wait: another 20 minutes. Wait to be admitted to the emergency room: another hour and a half.
Mind you my finger was partially severed, so I was in excruciating pain. Because the waiting room was crowded, I tried not to draw attention to myself by crying or acting as if I was in pain. It was unbearable. A few times I had to walk up and down the parking lot and just let it go.
Wait for morphine to kill my pain once I was admitted to the ER: another 20 minutes, while they checked with doctors to make sure I could have it. Wait to have a few loose stitches applied to my finger to hold the severed tip: another three hours.
I checked in at 10:20 p.m. and left at 5:30 in the morning, sick from an allergy to the morphine. The finger was not stitched up properly for another five hours, when I finally got to Ocala Express for care.
I used to get seen much faster at New York hospitals for problems that were pure trivial pursuit in comparison: glass in my eye one time, a minor rash another time. Marion County hospitals desperately need to get it together.Debbie Meyer
Ocala
Not holed up
In response to the writer complaining of retirees on the roadways and in restaurants, when I retired to Ocala 20 years ago, it was a haven for retirement.
Highways and roads were not congested and driving was enjoyable. Hospitals, emergency rooms and restaurants were not overcrowded. When visiting one of the two local hospitals, I was able to park at the front door.
Then along came the developers and builders with over-development and an influx of people, which is turning Ocala into another Orlando.
I moved here because of the slow pace of living at the time and did not realize such growth. Apparently the writer expects us retirees to stay off the roads and away from the restaurants and remain in our holes on weekends and rush hours. I don't intend to change my ways or habits, as I have probably lived in Ocala longer than the writer.Donald R. Savalox
Ocala
Nice work
I am writing to acknowledge the great work done by the Marion County School System's Support Services.
The last couple of years I have put in several work orders at my school, and every one of them was done quickly and professionally. The grounds crews created a new field, track and softball field that look wonderful. The paint shop also made our basketball court look fantastic. Support Services also installed a water fountain for our new field that the kids really appreciate. Currently they are pruning the woods along our fence line and once again doing a fast, professional job.
For those of you who think privatizing these jobs is intelligent, I say take a look at the great work Support Services does, and you will see that would be a major mistake.Ron Woodard
Stanton-Weirsdale Elementary
Weirsdale

<p class="bold allcaps">What if</p>My 10-year-old daughter and 9-year-old niece ride a school bus from a stop off of Southwest 60th Avenue, about six miles from my home. Recently, the school bus, which usually arrives at the stop around 2:30 p.m., arrived close to 2:15 p.m.<BR>
My sister works just off of State Road 200, a few blocks from 60th Avenue. She got off at 2:15 and arrived at the bus stop by 2:25. When she arrived, our two girls were quite hysterical, left alone at the bus stop. My child is in the fifth grade, and this is the first and only time this has ever happened. One child was standing in the middle of the vacant lot crying and the other was hiding near the cement wall of the development hiding and crying.<BR>
They told my sister another child on the bus offered her cell phone and asked if the children could get off at the next bus stop where her mother was waiting. The bus driver said absolutely not and told them they had to get off the bus because he had a schedule to keep.<BR>
He knows these two small girls always have a car waiting for them. When I called the School Board they said the policy is to make all children, except for Pre-K, get off the bus, even if no one is there. And a child had to get off at the stop where they got on, no matter what.<BR>
In this day of abductions and bold pedophiles, this is outrageous. An older man actually stopped and asked the girls if they were OK and if they needed a ride home. Fortunately they knew enough to say no. I hope it was just someone being kind and concerned, more than I can say for the School Board. But who knows?<BR>
The School Board said if we knew we were going to be late, we could call and they would radio the driver. Well, the driver was early that day and still refused to wait a few minutes.<BR>
I hope I never hear about a child knowingly being dropped off at a stop without their parent waiting and he or she is never seen again.<BR>
<b>Linda Mahone
Ocala</b>
Oil-less future
Fossil fuel, petroleum, the destructor of our planet Earth. Although we have been supplied with all the provisions we need to sustain life, petroleum has been our nemesis.<BR>
It has caused wars between nations, the warming of our planet, and the poisoning of our atmosphere. Many problems ignored by our present elected officials are serious, and have become a threat to our life and country. Our bureaucratic government has become so constipated with greed and corruption, it is nearly at a halt.<BR>
In order to correct these problems, our private sector should take over many of them and help get our country back on track. Automobile manufacturers throughout the world should syndicate and develop an economical method of producing hydrogen fuel for their vehicles, the mechanics of which, engines and the production of hydrogen fuel, was developed years ago.<BR>
The petroleum industry uses the guise of, "The production of hydrogen fuel is prohibitive." Not so! The petroleum industry is a multi-megadollar industry. Why do you think we are at war?<BR>
Private industry made this country. Why let our government give it away, such as the Panama Canal, our seaports, manufacturing and the U.S. itself.<BR>
We are slowly using up our world credit card and have no more collateral. We've given our country away!<BR>
<b>Dale Danielsen
Ocala</b>
Failed sobriety test
I have to laugh at the hysterical letter writers trying to defend Vice President Cheney by blaming President Clinton or Sen. Hillary Clinton for past deeds, real or imagined.<BR>
Dick Cheney admitted in his Fox News interview that he had had only one beer before going hunting. Ask any Marion County police officer who has stopped someone for DUI how many beers the driver said he had. I guarantee the response will be, "I only had one beer, officer."<BR>
I believe Dick Cheney was under the influence of alcohol when he shot his hunting partner in the face. This would account for the reason Cheney did not want to talk to the police until after the alcohol had cleared from his system. I believe the press and other news media should question him about this.<BR>
Also, Republican letter writers should remember the disgraced Republican Richard Nixon, who got so drunk he wandered the White House talking to a portrait of Abe Lincoln while he planned the Watergate break-in. Or his vice president, Spiro Agnew, who was convicted for taking financial kickbacks.<BR>
Yeah, the list goes on right up to the present day. Here's hoping George Bush and Dick Cheney both will try to stay sober for the next three years.<BR>
<b>James T. Amis
Ocala</b>
Longer and longer
Regarding the article "Hospitals diverting patients" (Feb. 24), nothing has changed in the six years since I first visited Munroe Regional Medical Center, except waits are growing longer.<BR>
When I crushed my right index finger in a 50-ton welder at SEMCO, an Ocala company that's since gone out of business, I was taken to Munroe by another employee. Wait to be seen at window: about 10 minutes. There was a line. Wait to have blood pressure taken and be sent back to waiting room to wait: another 20 minutes. Wait to be admitted to the emergency room: another hour and a half.<BR>
Mind you my finger was partially severed, so I was in excruciating pain. Because the waiting room was crowded, I tried not to draw attention to myself by crying or acting as if I was in pain. It was unbearable. A few times I had to walk up and down the parking lot and just let it go.<BR>
Wait for morphine to kill my pain once I was admitted to the ER: another 20 minutes, while they checked with doctors to make sure I could have it. Wait to have a few loose stitches applied to my finger to hold the severed tip: another three hours.<BR>
I checked in at 10:20 p.m. and left at 5:30 in the morning, sick from an allergy to the morphine. The finger was not stitched up properly for another five hours, when I finally got to Ocala Express for care.<BR>
I used to get seen much faster at New York hospitals for problems that were pure trivial pursuit in comparison: glass in my eye one time, a minor rash another time. Marion County hospitals desperately need to get it together.<BR>
<b>Debbie Meyer
Ocala</b>
Not holed up
In response to the writer complaining of retirees on the roadways and in restaurants, when I retired to Ocala 20 years ago, it was a haven for retirement.<BR>
Highways and roads were not congested and driving was enjoyable. Hospitals, emergency rooms and restaurants were not overcrowded. When visiting one of the two local hospitals, I was able to park at the front door.<BR>
Then along came the developers and builders with over-development and an influx of people, which is turning Ocala into another Orlando.<BR>
I moved here because of the slow pace of living at the time and did not realize such growth. Apparently the writer expects us retirees to stay off the roads and away from the restaurants and remain in our holes on weekends and rush hours. I don't intend to change my ways or habits, as I have probably lived in Ocala longer than the writer.<BR>
<b>Donald R. Savalox
Ocala</b>
Nice work
I am writing to acknowledge the great work done by the Marion County School System's Support Services.<BR>
The last couple of years I have put in several work orders at my school, and every one of them was done quickly and professionally. The grounds crews created a new field, track and softball field that look wonderful. The paint shop also made our basketball court look fantastic. Support Services also installed a water fountain for our new field that the kids really appreciate. Currently they are pruning the woods along our fence line and once again doing a fast, professional job.<BR>
For those of you who think privatizing these jobs is intelligent, I say take a look at the great work Support Services does, and you will see that would be a major mistake.<BR>
<b>Ron Woodard
Stanton-Weirsdale Elementary
Weirsdale</b>